Wout van Aert won the belgium cx champs from Kevin Pauwels and Laurens Sweeck.Mathieu van der Poel also defended his title successfully despite his heavy crash in last month's Loenhout DVV Trofee. Corne van Kessel was second and leader of the U23 world cup Joris Niewenhuis third.In france, Clement Venturini took victory ahead of Arnold Jeanasson and John Gadret.If I got my translation of the swiss/german website correct, Julien Taramarcaz reclaimed the national champ's jersey from Lars Forster (2nd) with Nicola Rohrbach coming home in third.Marcel Meisen won in germany. Sascha Weber came second with defending champion Philip Walsleben in third.The british title was won by Ian Field who took his fifth national champion's jersey ahead of the defending champion Liam Kileen and Paul Oldham.

They are the only results I can find for the men. The US national champs are later, with the conditions looking cold and snowy.

Stephen Hyde won in the USA in snowy and icy conditions. He actually broke his rear derailleur on the final uphill, about 300m from the finish. However he freewheeled, scooted and ran to hold off a charging Jamey Driscoll who caught him just after the line. Kerry Werner took third.

In Belgium Sanne Cant won the womens race with the Dutch title Marianne Vos giving WM3 Procycling their first national championship of the year. Nikki Brammier, like Cant, defended her title in Bradford (UK) where she won here first elite cx championship in 2013. Katie Compton won in Hartford (USA) in equally cold and snowy conditions like Hyde in the men's race. Pavla Havlikova won in the Czech Republic and Caroline Mani won in france.

You'd think that with Wout and MVP not in the mix and with the best women's field in a long time that you'd get some really exciting racing but Hoogerheide was probably the least interesting cross of the season. That course + that weather = snoozefest.

The day of the dropped chains, all races. Vos in the last lap of all places to do it. What a fantastic race tho! I haven't dropped one since I switched to 1x three years ago. What is it about 1x that most of the Euro contingent doesn't get? WvA must have lost 2 races this season due to dropped chains, hopefully not tomorrow. Doesn't have to be this way.

The elite race was full of mechanicals and punctures. Surprisingly enough the U23 was full of crashes but not so many punctures. Guess the higher speed caused a lot of the punctures but the experience prevented crashes.Pauwels unsurprisingly manages yet another 3rd